Since TAWSs <<Terrain Avoidance Warning Systems)<< have significantly reduced CFITs (Controlled Flight Into Terrain) type accidents in recent years, the main cause of aircraft accidents is now collisions on the ground between aircraft and other aircraft or ground vehicles moving on the same airport.
The main reason is the penetration of a vehicle onto a traffic way (runway, taxiway, parking area) within the area of an airport without prior authorization to enter this area, and is normally referred to as “Runway Incursion” or “Runway Intrusion”. Such unauthorized penetrations inevitably introduce risks of collisions with any aircraft moving on these traffic ways (either during take off or landing).
These risks are mainly related to a failure to respect running authorizations (largely due to inattention), given by air traffic control or airport traffic control authorities.
Note that a “Runway Incursion” refers to unauthorized penetration on a traffic way and “Runway. Intrusion” refers to unauthorised penetration on a traffic way already occupied by another moving vehicle or aircraft.
The continuous increase in air traffic and the complexity of airports increases these risks of intrusion, and consequently increases the risks of collision between aircraft and other moving vehicles.
According to rules in force at the moment, a vehicle on an airport moves at the request of the person responsible for the vehicle, but in accordance with authorizations provided by air traffic control or airport traffic control authorities responsible for assuring organised and safe flow of movements on the ground. The person responsible for the vehicle assures that it runs freely in accordance with the authorisations obtained.
Up to now, the corresponding positions of the different vehicles and the corresponding authorisations were monitored visually by air traffic control or airport traffic control authorities, very often using monitoring systems mostly based on surveillance radar on the ground within the airport, and recently also possibly by multi-lateration ground systems (using data output by onboard transponders).
Based on position information supplied by these systems, air traffic control or airport traffic control authorities generate running authorisations for the different vehicles along a route as far as a transfer point at which the vehicle must wait until it obtains a new authorisation before starting a new movement.
Running authorizations and their characteristics (routing, compulsory transfer point) are supplied very largely by voice (typically through a VHF channel) and are taken into account mentally by the person responsible for the vehicle, and are rarely inserted into onboard systems.
Recently, on some airports and with some airlines, it has become possible to supply these instructions through CPDLC (Controller-Pilot Data Link Communications) in a form such as PDC (PreDeparture Clearances) through a Datalink (VHF data channel). The instructions are then displayed on an onboard screen (or possibly printed onboard), but they are usually not inserted into other onboard systems.
In this case such an insertion could be envisaged automatically, or in both cases it could be done manually by the person responsible for the vehicle, possibly but not necessarily using predefined routing lists.
Transfer points are systematically given for crossing “taxiway holding position” (also called “Stop-bars” or “Holding points”), or also “taxiway intersection marking” as defined in Appendix 14 in the ICAO. Control authorities may also use other transfer points.
Since the person responsible for the vehicle is fully responsible for running as far as the transfer point, failure to respect the transfer point or the assigned routing (mainly by inattention) can introduce the above-mentioned risks of a Runway Incursion or a Runway Intrusion.
Up to now, there has been no available onboard system to help the pilot in following the assigned touting and particularly to notify him if he passes a compulsory transfer point that may or may not have been assigned to him (for example following a routing error). Such functions are only carried out at the ground control level.
Therefore, it is very important to provide the person responsible for the vehicle with information to assist him in his functions.
American patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,606,563 describes a warning system (sound only) notifying the pilot of an aircraft when the distance from his aircraft to a runway or more generally any zone is less than a predefined value.
Even if the system described apparently provides progress to notify the pilot when he is approaching a runway, it does not help the pilot in following the assigned route and any warnings that it gives are not related to compulsory transfer points that were assigned by their air control or airport traffic control authorities.
The invention described in the following is intended to provide a solution to significantly reduce these risks of “Runway Incursion” or “Runway Intrusion” by helping with following running instructions assigned to the vehicle, and/or by monitoring that these running instructions are respected.